Tour in French means "tower".De in French means "of".Main in French means "hand".

Fulcanelli was an absolute Master of double-speak and even triple-speak at times. His words, phrases, placement, tone are so specifically chosen that one must admire his genius in this realm.

I was reading "Dwellings Of The Philosophers" last night which is full of this literary double-speak veiled language and was amazed to see that in the text itself, in a place nowhere near the "flick of the wrist" mistranslation, the word 'tour' is explicitly revealed to mean 'tower'.

The translator obviously not privy to the higher secrets of Alchemy refused to translate this phrase literally and instead chose to translate this phrase into the spirit of what he erroneously thought the author meant instead of what Fulcanelli was truly writing about.

I had first read about this theory about "tower of the hand" elsewhere (see below) and it made more sense than any other explanation, but after reading the section about the 'tower' last night, I felt I had to share this explanation which makes more sense than anything others (including Zoas23) has previously mentioned.

Here is where I originally read this theory...

Originally Posted by Pythagoras

There are phrases in the alchemic texts often improperly translated or otherwise misinterpreted. One such phrase I've noticed recently on another forum is that taken from a writing having to do with CYLIANI.
The phrase in question is: "TOUR DE MAIN."

I've watched as some rather clever individuals perform cartwheels attempting to make sense out of this particular snippet.

They've likened these words to meaning "sleight of hand", "twist of the wrist", "turn of the hand" and whatever other machination one can contrive with ones imagination.
So far it appears that these clever individuals have settled on the phrase as meaning something akin to a "hidden skill" or some "method requiring the hand of an artist."

The conclusions appear to me erroneous. Tour de main literally translates as: "tower of the hand." Now, let's see what this may very well mean within an alchemic context.

The tower is a cylindrical edifice of medieval times. It symbolizes an habitat of height and power.

The "hand" was the name given to the strongman appointed by the king, to rule in his absence.

The hand was the Kings enforcer. He stayed in the tower where he could watch over the abscent Kings domain.

Alchemically speaking, the hand is our elevated salts, hence the tower. These salts are crucial to the work which eventually heralds in the King. Therefore, the king is away. The hand (salt), is the power of the abscent King.

This is the type of interpretation that we must explore when reading old alchemical texts. To impose erroneous meanings to words without understanding is injurous to the budding student of this art.

Do the translation with my interpretation. Quel qu'un parlez francais?

It's unfortunate that these clever individuals elsewhere bask in their ignorance without the sleightest clue of what they are speaking about.

Who hasn't watched Game of Thrones? The role of the hand was played by Tyrone Lannister.

It is my opinion that the translation, flick of the wrist", is completely wrong. The original script was French . Tour de main is not flick of the wrist. I don't put much faith in the words of authorities without due diligence. The translation is wrong and has sent researchers on wild goose chases for years. My first language is English, but I do understand well enough some of the Latin based languages. If we can't understand the words and perform incorrect translations, then we'll never come to comprehend the cloudy speech of the alchemists.

Originally Posted by Pythagoras

I don't know where it's from, but the reference to the "Hand" is quite interesting isn't it?

It is as I've said it is. There can be no doubt. The Hand is the instrument that drives the work. If you lose the Hand, your work will not complete. Hence we must lute our tour well lest the Hand escape and be gone forever.

And, according to their general testimony, and for other explicable reasons, we judge that the Hand was the instrument employed, not only to impart the Spirit as a natural gift, but by a continual mechanic trituration, as it were, to dissolve and ultimately obliterate its innate defects.

This is pure truth.

Nature cannot of herself enter into the dissolution, says the author of the Filum Ariadne, because she has no hands. --- The Hand, says Van Helmont, is the instrument of instruments, which the soul likewise useth, as a means by which it bears its image into operation

Here we go with linguistic arts yet again.

The work is not of human hands but is of the Hand...yet for the Hand to do its work, we must give it a hand to set up the conditions. This way, the soul too can make use of it.

What is the soul??? It is Appollo, the Sun god. And what face does he wear in the presence of the Hand??? This, one must learn.

We could bring together a multitude of passages showing the literal application of these, but have a doubt about the utility, since they would prove nothing to unbelievers;

And this is the truth. If you haven't seen with your own eyes, the miracle of the one thing, then you doubt most everyone who may be cognizant of... something.

In "Dwellings Of The Philosophers" we learn what 'tour' means as well...

"We cannot reasonably deny that the tower, so important in medieval fortification, holds a clearly defined meaning. Hermetically, we can see the tower as the envelope, the refuge, the protective sanctuary."

"The phonetic cabala which makes the French word "tour" (tower) equivalent to the Attic word "turos", completes the Pantagruelic meaning of the tower, or feat of strength. As a matter of fact, "turos" is substituted and used for "to oris" (goal, term, objective meant to be achieved), thus marking the thing to be attained the goal set forth."

-Dwellings Of The Philosophers, by Fulcanelli

"If, moved by curiosity or simply wishing to give some purpose to a summer stroll, you climb the spiral staircase leading to the high parts of the building, you should make you way slowly along the path, hollowed out like a channel at the top of the second gallery. Once you are in the vicinity of the main axis of the majestic building, at the re-entrant angle of the North Tower, you will see in the middle of the procession of monsters, a large and striking stone relief of an old man. This is he-the alchemist of Notre Dame. Wearing a Phrygian cap, attribute of the Adept, negligently placed on his long, thickly curling hair, the scholar, dressed in his working cape, is leaning with one hand on the balustrade and stroking his full, silky beard with the other. He is not meditating, he is observing. His eye is fixed; his look is strangely acute. The philosopher's whole attitude suggests extreme emotion. The slope of his shoulders, the forward thrust of his head and chest, betray, indeed, the greatest surprise. Surely that hand of stone is coming to life. Is it illusion? You would think you saw it trembling. What a splendid figure he is, this old master! Anxiously and attentively he is scrutinizing and enquiring into the evolution of mineral life and finally he contemplates in amazement the prodigy, which his faith alone has let him perceive."

"Our 'tour' is over. Once again we stand in pensive and silent wonder, pondering on these marvellous and surprising exemplars, whose author has so long remained unknown to us. Is there somewhere a book written in his 'hand'? Nothing seems to indicate it. No doubt, following the example of the great Adepts of the Middle Ages, he preferred to entrust to stone, rather than to vellum, the undeniable evidence of an immense science, of which he possessed all the secrets. It is, therefore, just and equitable that his memory should be revived among us, that his name should at last emerge from obscurity and shine like a star of the first magnitude in the hermetic firmament."

"People think that such things are merely a play on words. I agree. The important thing is that such word-play should guide our faith towards certainty, towards positive and scientific truth, which is the key to the religious mystery, and should not leave us wandering in the capricious maze of our imagination. The fact is that there is neither chance nor coincidence nor accidental correspondence here below. All is foreseen, preordained, regulated; and it is not for us to bend to our pleasure the inscrutable will of Destiny. If the usual sense of words does not allow us any discovery capable of elevating and instructing us, of bringing us nearer to our Creator, then words become useless. The spoken word, which gives man his indisputable superiority, his dominion over every living thing, loses its nobility, its greatness, its beauty. It becomes no more than a distressing vanity. Besides, language, the instrument of the spirit, has a life of its own even though it is only a reflection of the universal Idea. We do not invent anything, we do not create anything. All is in everything. Our microcosm is only an infinitesimal, animated, thinking and more or less imperfect particle of the macrocosm. What we believe we have ourselves discovered by an effort of our intelligence, exists already elsewhere. Faith gives us a presentiment of what this is. Revelation gives us absolute proof. Often we pass by a phenomenon, or a miracle even, without noticing it, like men blind and deaf. What unsuspected marvels we should find, if we knew how to dissect words, to strip them of their bark and liberate the spirit, the divine light which is within! Jesus expressed himself only in parables; can we deny the truth which the parables teach? In present-day conversation is it not the ambiguities, the approximations, the puns or the assonances which characterize spirited people, who are glad to escape from the tyranny of the letter and thereby unwittingly show themselves cabalists in their own right."

"Finally I would add that argot is one of the forms derived from the "Language of the Birds", parent and doyen of all other languages-the one spoken by philosophers and diplomats. It was knowledge of this language which Jesus revealed to his Apostles, by sending them his spirit, the Holy Ghost. This is the language which teaches the mystery of things and unveils the most hidden truths. The ancient Incas called it the "Court Language", because it was used by diplomats. To them it was the key to the double science, sacred and profane. In the Middle Ages it was called the "Gay Science" and the "Gay Knowledge", the "Language of the Gods".

-The Mystery Of The Cathedrals, by Fulcanelli

"About this science, a remark is called for which, we believe, is all the more founded because the uninformed student tends to confuse the hermetic cabala to the system of allegorical interpretation which the Jews claim to have received through tradition and which they call Kabbala. In fact, the two terms have nothing in common, save their pronunciation. The Hebrew Kabbala is only concerned with the Bible; it is therefore strictly limited to sacred exegesis and hermeneutics. Hermetic cabala concerns books, texts and documents of the esoteric sciences of Antiquity, of the Middle Ages and of modern times. While the Hebraic kabbala is but a process based on the decomposition and explanation of each word or letter, the hermetic cabala on the contrary is a genuine language. And as the great majority of didactic treatises of ancient sciences are written in cabala or as they use this language in their essential passages; as the Great Art itself, on Artephius’ own confession, is completely cabalistic, the reader cannot understand any of it if he does not possess at least the first elements of the secret idiom. In the Hebrew kabbala, three meanings can be discovered in each sacred word, hence there are three different interpretations of kabbalas. The first, called Gematria involves the analysis of the numeric or arithmetic value of the letters composing the word; the second, called Notarikon, establishes the meaning of each letter considered separately; the third, Temura, variation, permutation, uses certain transpositions of letters. This last system, which seems to have been the oldest, dates from the time when the Alexandrian school flourished, and was created by some Jewish philosophers anxious to accommodate the Greek and Oriental philosophical speculations with the text of sacred books. We would not be particularly surprised if the fatherhood of this method was due to the Jew Philo, whose reputation was great at the beginning of our era because he is the first philosopher mentioned as having attempted to identify a true religion with philosophy. It is known that he tried to reconcile the writings of Plato with the Hebrew texts by interpreting the latter allegorically, which agrees perfectly with objective pursued by the Hebrew kabbala. Be that as it may, according to the works of very serious authors, we cannot assign to the Jewish system a date much earlier than the Christian era even by moving back the point of departure of this interpretation to the Greek Septuagint. The hermetic cabala however was used long before that period by the Pythagoreans and the disciples of Thales of Miletis, founder of the Ionian school: Anaximander, Pherecyde of Syros, Anaximene of Miletis, Heraclitus of Ephesus, Anaxagoras of Clazomene, etc., in a word, by all the philosophers and Greek savants, as the Papyrus of Leyden testifies.

What is also generally unknown is that the cabala contained and preserved the essential part of the mother tongue of the Pelasgians, a deformed, albeit not destroyed, language, within primitive Greek; it is the root language of Western idioms and particularly of French, whose Pelasgian origin is undeniably verified; an admirable language, of which it suffices to know a few smatterings to easily rediscover, in the different European dialects, the real meaning, altered by time and by the migrations of peoples, from the original language. Conversely, to Jewish kabbala, created out of nothing so as to veil, doubtlessly, that which the sacred text showed too clearly, hermetic cabala is a precious key allowing whoever possesses it to open the doors of the sanctuaries, of these closed books which are the works of traditional science, to extract their spirit, to see their secret meaning. Known to Jesus and his apostles, the cabal was used in the Middle Ages by philosophers, scientists, men of letters, and diplomats. Knights belonging to Orders and knights-errant, troubadours, trouveres, and minstrels, traveling students of the famous school of magic at Salamanc, who we call Venusbergs because they were said to come from the mountain of Venus, discussed among themselves in the language of the gods, also called the gay science or gay knowledge, our hermetic cabala. Furthermore, it bears the name and the spirit of Chivalry, the true name of which was revealed to us by Dante’s mystical book.

The Latin word Caballus and the Greek word "kaballes", both mean pack-horse; our cabala truly carries a considerable weight, the "pack" and sum total of ancient knowledge and of medieval chivalry or cabalery or cabala, the heavy baggage of esoteric truth transmitted by its intermediary throughout the ages. It was the secret language of "cabaliers", horsemen, and cavaliers. The initiates and intellectuals of Antiquity knew it. The ones and the others, so as to reach fullness of knowledge, metaphorically rode the "cavale" the mare, the horse, spiritual vehicle whose typical image is that of Pegasus, the winged horse of the Greek poets. It alone gave the chosen one access to unknown regions, and offered them the possibility to see all and know all throughout space and time, ether and life. Pegasus, in Greek "pegasos", takes its name from the word "pege", source, or spring, because it is said that it caused the fountain of Hippocrene to spring out with one kick; but the truth is of another nature. It is because the cabala provides the cause, gives the principle, reveals the source of sciences that its hieroglyphic animal received the special and characteristic name it now bears. To know the cabala is to speak the language of Pegasus, the language of the horse, of which Twist expressively indicates, in one of his allegorical Travels, the effective value and the esoteric power.

Mysterious language of the philosophers and disciples of Hermes, the cabala dominates the entire didactics of the Great Art, just as symbolism embraces all its iconography. Art and literature thus offer to the hidden science the added support of their own resources and their expressive faculties. Actually, and in spite of their specific characteristics and their separate techniques, the cabala and symbolism use different paths to reach the same goal and to merge into the same teaching. They are the two master pillars erected on the corner stones of the philosophical foundation, which support the alchemical fronton of the temple of wisdom. All idioms can give refuge to the traditional meaning of the cabalistic words, because the cabala, deprived of texture and syntax, easily adapts itself to any language, without altering its special genius. It brings to the different natural languages the substances of its thought with the original meaning of the names and of the qualities. So that any language always remains likely to carry it, to incorporate it, and consequently to become cabalistic by the double meanings which it takes on as a result.

Apart from its pure alchemical role, the cabala was used in the elaboration of several literary masterpieces, which many dilettantes can appreciate, without however guessing what treasures they hide under the attractiveness, the charm, the nobleness of style. This is because the authors, whether they are named Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Plato, Dante, or Goethe, were all great initiates. They wrote their immortal works not so much to leave to posterity imperishable monuments of the human genius, but rather to instruct it in the sublime knowledge of which they were the depositories and which they had to transmit in their entirety. We should judge in that way, apart from the already quoted masters, the marvelous artisans of chivalrous poems, jests, etc. belonging to the cycle of the Round Table and of the Grail; the works of Francois Rabelais and the ones by De Cyrano Bergerac; Don Quixote by Miquel Cervantes; Gulliver’s Travels by Swift; the Dream of Polyphilus by Francisco Colonna; the Tales of Mother Goose by Perrault; the Songs of the King of Navarre by Thibault de Champagne; The Devil as a Predicator, a curious Spanish book of which we do not know the author, and many other books which, albeit less famous, are not lesser in interest nor in knowledge."

-Dwellings Of The Philosophers, by Fulcanelli

"It would be enough to point out that this book has restored to light the phonetic cabala, whose principles and application had been completely lost. After this detailed and precise elucidation and after the brief treatment of it, which I gave in connection with the centaur, the man-horse of Plessis-Bourre, in Deux Logis Alchimiques, this mother tongue need never be confused with the Jewish Kabbala. Though never spoken, the phonetic cabala, this forceful idiom, is easily understood and it is, at least according to Cyrano de Bergerac, the instinct or voice of Nature. By contrast, the Jewish Kabbala is full of transpositions, inversions, substitutions and calculations, as arbitrary as they are abstruse. This is why it is important to distinguish between the two words cabala and kabbala, in order to use them knowledgeably. Cabala derives from [Greek word] or from the Latin caballus, a horse; kabbala is from the Hebrew Kabbalah, which means tradition. Finally, figurative meanings like coterie, underhand dealing or intrigue, developed in modem usage by analogy, should be ignored so as to reserve for the noun cabala the only significance which can be assured for it. This is the one which Fulcanelli himself confirmed in such a masterly way by rediscovering the lost key to that "Gay Science", the "Language of the Gods", the "Language of the Birds". It is the language with which Jonathan Swift, that strange Dean of St. Patrick's, was thoroughly familiar and which he used with so much knowledge and virtuosity."

"We cannot reasonably deny that the tower, so important in medieval fortification, holds a clearly defined meaning. Hermetically, we can see the tower as the envelope, the refuge, the protective sanctuary."

"The phonetic cabala which makes the French word "tour" (tower) equivalent to the Attic word "turos", completes the Pantagruelic meaning of the tower, or feat of strength. As a matter of fact, "turos" is substituted and used for "to oris" (goal, term, objective meant to be achieved), thus marking the thing to be attained the goal set forth."

Turos -> Tauros.
Belly of Tauros -> Middle of Hand.
Remember Hollandus' picture with secret fire/Mercury being in the middle of the hand / middle of tower?

Too bad that Fulcanelli could never find even one example from an actual alchemical text that used his fanciful "Phonetic Cabala" nonsense claims, LOL! The fact that he even thought that WEIDENFELD (who, ironically, is actually one of the clearest authors you can find) was writing in "Cabalistic" terms pretty much says a lot about how unreliable Fulcanelli is regarding this topic. When the few alchemists who refer to things "Cabalalistic" in their writings elaborate on what they actually mean by such things they are either things taken from actual Jewish "Kabbalah" or simple decknamen or other common literary devices, like acrostics, for example. A perfect example of this is found in the above referred to Weidenfeld himself, who sometimes explains these simple literary devices, like words spelled backwards, for example.

The entire "Phonetic Cabala" edifice that Fulcanelli constructed easily falls down on its face even if you only consider that most alchemical texts entered the French language via Latin, and these in their turn were primarily based on Arabic texts, and these in their turn from Greek texts. It is simply impossible that you can retain the TOTALLY ARBITRARY & FANCIFUL phonetic/word games that Fulcanelli absurdly proposes from such very different languages. It doesn't take an expert in linguistics to easily realize that you would obviously lose most of these supposed "encoded messages" from one language to the next as you translate the texts. Therefore, the entire literature of alchemy, with the only exception of the original texts themselves, would be pretty much worthless, as it would have not been able to retain such nuances from one language to the next.

Too bad that Fulcanelli could never find even one example from an actual alchemical text that used his fanciful "Phonetic Cabala" nonsense claims, LOL! The fact that he even thought that WEIDENFELD (who, ironically, is actually one of the clearest authors you can find) was writing in "Cabalistic" terms pretty much says a lot about how unreliable Fulcanelli is regarding this topic. When the few alchemists who refer to things "Cabalalistic" in their writings elaborate on what they actually mean by such things they are either things taken from actual Jewish "Kabbalah" or simple decknamen or other common literary devices, like acrostics, for example. A perfect example of this is found in the above referred to Weidenfeld himself, who sometimes explains these simple literary devices, like words spelled backwards, for example.

The entire "Phonetic Cabala" edifice that Fulcanelli constructed easily falls down on its face even if you only consider that most alchemical texts entered the French language via Latin, and these in their turn were primarily based on Arabic texts, and these in their turn from Greek texts. It is simply impossible that you can retain the TOTALLY ARBITRARY & FANCIFUL phonetic/word games that Fulcanelli absurdly proposes from such very different languages. It doesn't take an expert in linguistics to easily realize that you would obviously lose most of these supposed "encoded messages" from one language to the next as you translate the texts. Therefore, the entire literature of alchemy, with the only exception of the original texts themselves, would be pretty much worthless, as it would have not been able to retain such nuances from one language to the next.

I have evidence that at least in one book from the 18th century the phonetic-cabala was already used and explained as an alchemical method. The book is called "Das Geheimnis von dem Salz" and some claim it's author is Friedrich Christoph Oetinger (you know him) for reasons I don't know, because it was published anonymously in very small quantities. Thanks to google books it's easily available now.
The author uses cabbalstic word play in old greek and german. Just like Fulcanelli did with french.

I have evidence that at least in one book from the 18th century the phonetic-cabala was already used and explained as an alchemical method. The book is called "Das Geheimnis von dem Salz" and some claim it's author is Friedrich Christoph Oetinger (you know him) for reasons I don't know, because it was published anonymously in very small quantities. Thanks to google books it's easily available now.
The author uses cabbalstic word play in old greek and german. Just like Fulcanelli did with french.

Give some examples of what that author claims. All such things supposedly "cabalistical" I have found in actual alchemical texts before Fulcanelli are of a very different nature than Fulcanelli's fanciful claims. They are simple and common literary devices, like acrostics, acronyms, backwards-spellings, etc.

Give some examples of what that author claims. All such things supposedly "cabalistical" I have found in actual alchemical texts before Fulcanelli are of a very different nature than Fulcanelli's fanciful claims. They are simple and common literary devices, like acrostics, acronyms, backwards-spellings, etc.

Sure.
Basically everything I wrote in this post I have from that book (Besides the Hulk Hogan pun):

In paragraph 41, the author explains that the "old german cabbalists" explain the word Salz (german for salt) like this:

S is the snake and a ribbon that ties together two circles, namely what's above with that what's below as well as the sun and the moon.

A is for "Anfang"(german for beginning/start). The salt is the beginning of the work. Places near streams that regularly get flooded in old german tongues are written with an "A" are called "Au", which is a hint to a certain water that stands in some kind of mysterious relationship with the salt. The form of the "A" furthermore is a symbol for fire.

Whereas "S" is for "solar", "L" is for "lunar". The "A" is in the middle and the conjunction of both.

"Z" is the last character in the alphabeth and sounds like "s", which again is the first character of "Salz", leading into the first letter of the alphabeth "A", therefore a perfect symbol of the auroboros and the closing circle.

Note that other german authors could have been aware of this as well without telling. For example the pseudonym Freiherr von Frydau, who wrote the very interesting book "Licht des Lichtes" can be interpreted as Baron of "Salt-Water".

In paragraph 41, the author explains that the "old german cabbalists" explain the word Salz (german for salt) like this:

S is the snake and a ribbon that ties together two circles, namely what's above with that what's below as well as the sun and the moon.

A is for "Anfang"(german for beginning/start). The salt is the beginning of the work. Places near streams that regularly get flooded in old german tongues are written with an "A" are called "Au", which is a hint to a certain water that stands in some kind of mysterious relationship with the salt. The form of the "A" furthermore is a symbol for fire.

Whereas "S" is for "solar", "L" is for "lunar". The "A" is in the middle and the conjunction of both.

"Z" is the last character in the alphabeth and sounds like "s", which again is the first character of "Salz", leading into the first letter of the alphabeth "A", therefore a perfect symbol of the auroboros and the closing circle.

Note that other german authors could have been aware of this as well without telling. For example the pseudonym Freiherr von Frydau, who wrote the very interesting book "Licht des Lichtes" can be interpreted as Baron of "Salt-Water".

But that's speculation, though interesting imo.

q.e.d

None of this is quite like the complicated and fanciful phonetic word-games that Fulcanelli claims, though. These are just more examples of common literary devices: acrostics, acronyms, anagrams, etymologies, etc.

Give an example of what you consider to be a complicated and fanciful phonetic word game.

Imo what this author says plays in the same cabalistic league like the interpretation that the flick of the wrist is the tower of the hand and the dwelling of the king's helper.

Read the "Hermetic Cabala" section of Dwellings. There is nothing in the old alchemical texts anywhere near the level of complication and totally arbitrary word "permutations" of Fulcanelli's "phonetic cabala" or "language of the birds", which are also often based on Greek words, to make things even more complicated. The majority of non-Alexandrian/Byzantine alchemists in fact knew precious little of the Greek language to even entertain the thought of coming up with such weird stuff! The early Arabic alchemists worked with translations of Greek texts, and the early Latin alchemists relied on translations of Arabic texts. Few of them actually knew Greek. They relied on translators who knew that language in order to get versions they could read.